Today’s piece comes from Gareth Barker.

IT’S not quite back to the drawing board, but after the Chelsea performance it was a real shame to see Sunderland regress like they did on Wednesday night.

The trip to Anfield tomorrow presents another tough challenge. The lads need to put the Manchester City performance behind them and galvanise themselves for what will probably be another backs-to-the wall performance.

It was always going to be difficult to replicate that Chelsea performance just three days later. Gus was probably stuck between a rock and a hard place, and I felt we were a bit more open and expansive.

For the players to concentrate to that level for 90 minutes so soon after Sunday would be practically impossible; that was reflected in our play, and most importantly, the result.

You can read the rest here.